Mike Hazen,
First, as a Diamondbacks fan who has watched this team for years and finally got to see a quality team, thank you. In one of your first few years of what is hopefully a long tenure as the general manager in Arizona, a fantastic team took the field that managed to flip their record form 69-93 to 93-69. Despite a rough finish to the season, that was the best Diamondback team I had ever watched. Goldschmidt was fantastic, Archie Bradley became an all-star caliber player, and multiple players exceeded expectations. Some of that goes to Torey Lovullo, but he was your guy and you made the absolute right call. But today, tomorrow and the next couple days could be the most important days of your tenure for at least a year. There is always the issue of improving the team, and I have absolute faith that it'll be done, but there is one larger issue.
J.D Martinez.
Just Dingers was absolutely phenomenal in the second half of the year to the point where he had some serious MVP consideration. In a league where teams are hitting more home runs than ever, J.D. Martinez could be key to a serious World Series run but he is a free agent. The current reports are saying that the Martinez decision could be decided in a bidding war between your Diamondbacks and the Boston Red Sox. Given the current monetary restrictions of the team, there is no chance of winning this arms race. Unless, something changes.
Not even a few days ago, whispers came out that your team may be talking about trading Zack Greinke. This report, a single tweet, said no trade was close but that you were talking with the Texas Rangers centered around a deal that could centered around a salary dump of Greinke's massive contract. If this is true, which it very well may not be, I have one opinion. Do it. Pull the trigger. J.D Martinez is worth it. Home runs reigning over all of Chase Field is most definitely worth it. Zack Greinke is fantastic, but he's had his playoff struggles including troubles in the Wild Card Game that essentially ended our postseason run. Along with that, we already have his replacement on the roster. Greinke was the Day 1 starter last year, deservingly so, but it's time for the Diamondbacks to unleash their new ace, Robbie Ray.
Robbie Ray could be the key to re-acquiring Martinez. If you, Lovullo and the rest of your management staff view Robbie Ray as your stater and ace of the future, it could be worth it to move Greinke, and I believe it is. Despite a frightening injury, there was not any more than a few games where Ray even had trouble with the opposers. I loved watching him play, and he definitely looked like the ace of the future. I would think you felt the same way. If you feel like Robbie is your guy, you can definitely handle the loss of Greinke. Plus, there will be plenty more runs scored with J.D. Martinez swinging the bat.
Thank you.
- Avid Diamondbacks fan, Zachary Spiecker
